A government ethics watchdog Tuesday filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission after audio from a secretly recorded conversation implied the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee tipped the scales in favor of their preferred candidate, and may have violated campaign finance laws in the process.

The secret recording of a conversation between House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Levi Tillemann, a Democrat candidate for the 6th Congressional District in Colorado, was made last December. The audio became public after the Intercept published it in April with Tillemann's consent after some names and private information were edited out.

Hoyer makes plain to Tillemann in the recording that some higher-ups in the Democratic party preferred Army veteran and corporate lawyer Jason Crow be the party's nominee in the district.

With Hoyer in Denver, Tillemann met the minority whip at the Hilton Denver Downtown to make the case that the party should stay neutral in the primary and that he had a more plausible path to victory than the same centrism that Coffman had already beaten repeatedly.

Hoyer, however, had his own message he wanted to convey: Tillemann should drop out.

In a frank and wide-ranging conversation, Hoyer laid down the law for Tillemann. The decision, Tillemann was told, had been made long ago. It wasn’t personal, Hoyer insisted, and there was nothing uniquely unfair being done to Tillemann, he explained: This is how the party does it everywhere.

Almost 6 months and no one has been charged yet? WOW! Looks like a major Federal Elections Commission law violation to me...and by the #2 ranking Democrat in the House. All the Bernie Bro's out there should be livid. This happened and even worse to Sanders. They should all be screaming at Jeff Sessions to appoint a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of what happened not only to Tillemann, but to Sanders as well. It appears the Democrat party couldn't give a rats backside what the voters want, they're going to anoint whomever they want. The only way you can get justice for Tillerman and Bernie is to withhold funds to the National DNC and just donate personally to whom you want in office. it will remove their poser to do another hatchet job like they did on poor Uncle Bernie.

Almost 6 months and no one has been charged yet? WOW! Looks like a major Federal Elections Commission law violation to me...and by the #2 ranking Democrat in the House. All the Bernie Bro's out there should be livid. This happened and even worse to Sanders. They should all be screaming at Jeff Sessions to appoint a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of what happened not only to Tillemann, but to Sanders as well. It appears the Democrat party couldn't give a rats backside what the voters want, they're going to anoint whomever they want. The only way you can get justice for Tillerman and Bernie is to withhold funds to the National DNC and just donate personally to whom you want in office. it will remove their poser to do another hatchet job like they did on poor Uncle Bernie.

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I am sure that all major TV networks have suspended regular programming for 24/7 coverage of this epic threat to The Republic.

Almost 6 months and no one has been charged yet? WOW! Looks like a major Federal Elections Commission law violation to me...and by the #2 ranking Democrat in the House. All the Bernie Bro's out there should be livid. This happened and even worse to Sanders. They should all be screaming at Jeff Sessions to appoint a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of what happened not only to Tillemann, but to Sanders as well. It appears the Democrat party couldn't give a rats backside what the voters want, they're going to anoint whomever they want. The only way you can get justice for Tillerman and Bernie is to withhold funds to the National DNC and just donate personally to whom you want in office. it will remove their poser to do another hatchet job like they did on poor Uncle Bernie.

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The FAILURE of the FEC to do anything is ENTIRELY the fault of the Senate GOP and your beloved BLOTUS!

The GOP Senate REFUSED to confirm any Obama FEC Commissioner nominations and your incompetent BLOTUS has FAILED to nominate any at all.

Without FEC Commissioners NOTHING is going to get done so the BLAME is ALL on the Republican side for this FAILURE.

BTW this is OLD NEWS. @Zorro has been whining about the same thing and was already provided with all the FACTS as to the abysmal failure of the GOP and your BLOTUS.

Trump could upend tradition with a tweet and nominate new FEC commissioners next hour. He could even scramble partisan orthodoxy and appoint independents or Libertarians to the commission — federal law only mandates that the commission feature no more than three members from any one political party.

But Trump has so far been decidedly Obamaesque in his indifference toward the FEC.

While Trump routinely rails against Democratic obstruction of his various executive branch nominees — “disgraceful!” — the lack of new FEC commissioners is a function of Trump failing to nominate anyone to the agency save for Texas attorney Trey Trainor. Trump first nominated Trainor, a Republican who supported Trump’s presidential campaign, more than seven months ago to replace Petersen, Trump’s failed pick for a US District Court judgeship.

The White House did not respond to several requests for comment last week and has for months refused to answer questions about the FEC.

Trump, though, is no stranger to the agency: he’s frequentlyopined about campaign money issues and his White House counsel is former FEC Chairman Don McGahn, an outspoken critic of campaign regulations.

“It’s hard to say what’s going on at the White House, and I have no idea if [inaction] is purposefully directed at the FEC, or if it’s no one’s priority,” Weintraub said.

“No administration has done well nominating, but this administration is just doing it worse — there’s really no excuse,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, which with the Washington Post tracks presidential nominations and rates government agencies on their workplace quality.

The FEC ranked 27 out of 28 small federal government agencies in the Partnership for Public Service’s most recent survey.

The US Senate, too, has largely ignored the FEC.

Although it oversees FEC functions, it hasn’t conducted an FEC oversight hearing in years. The Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which vets FEC nominees, has yet to even schedule a confirmation hearing for Trainor.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the committee’s ranking member, did not respond to several requests for comment.

Also non-responsive: Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who as Senate minority leader would typically offer Democratic FEC nomination recommendations to the president. Two government officials familiar with the FEC nomination process, however, say Schumer’s office has this year forwarded at least one FEC recommendation to Trump — an assertion the White House neither confirmed nor denied.

The FEC needs six commissioners willing to “faithfully” enforce the law, said Trevor Potter, a Republican FEC commissioner from 1991 to 1995 who now works as president for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan reform organization.

Almost 6 months and no one has been charged yet? WOW! Looks like a major Federal Elections Commission law violation to me...and by the #2 ranking Democrat in the House. All the Bernie Bro's out there should be livid. This happened and even worse to Sanders. They should all be screaming at Jeff Sessions to appoint a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of what happened not only to Tillemann, but to Sanders as well. It appears the Democrat party couldn't give a rats backside what the voters want, they're going to anoint whomever they want. The only way you can get justice for Tillerman and Bernie is to withhold funds to the National DNC and just donate personally to whom you want in office. it will remove their poser to do another hatchet job like they did on poor Uncle Bernie.

I see you conveniently left out the fact that Ellen Weintraub's six-year term expired 11 years ago, when George W. Bush occupied the White House, and The Kenyan skidmark failed to appoint her successor for 8 entire years!

Commissioner Steve Walther (nine years), Commissioner Matthew Petersen (seven years) and Chairwoman Caroline Hunter (five years) have also stayed aboard long after they should have been out of a job. The Kenyan skidmark failed to appoint their successors either!

As soon as one more drops, with 4 required to make a decision, I guess they are caput?

I see you conveniently left out the fact that Ellen Weintraub's six-year term expired 11 years ago, when George W. Bush occupied the White House, and The Kenyan skidmark failed to appoint her successor for 8 entire years!

Commissioner Steve Walther (nine years), Commissioner Matthew Petersen (seven years) and Chairwoman Caroline Hunter (five years) have also stayed aboard long after they should have been out of a job. The Kenyan skidmark failed to appoint their successors either!

As soon as one more drops, with 4 required to make a decision, I guess they are caput?

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Irrelevant non sequiturs do not alter the FACTS that the GOP Senate and your beloved BLOTUS are 100% RESPONSIBLE for the CURRENT situation with the FEC.

Irrelevant non sequiturs do not alter the FACTS that the GOP Senate and your beloved BLOTUS are 100% RESPONSIBLE for the CURRENT situation with the FEC.

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Ellen Weintraub's six-year term expired 11 years ago, Commissioner Steve Walther (nine years), Commissioner Matthew Petersen (seven years) and Chairwoman Caroline Hunter (five years) have also stayed aboard long after they should have been out of a job.

Ellen Weintraub's six-year term expired 11 years ago, Commissioner Steve Walther (nine years), Commissioner Matthew Petersen (seven years) and Chairwoman Caroline Hunter (five years) have also stayed aboard long after they should have been out of a job.

The Kenyan skidmark failed to appoint their successors!

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The confirmation process is a “broken system,” according to a prominent labor lawyer whose nomination to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) was blocked.

John J. Sullivan, associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), had been nominated more than 15 months before he asked the White House to withdraw his nomination in August.

In an exclusive interview with the Center for Public Integrity, Sullivan said the decision to end the quest for confirmation was entirely his, the result of a marathon process that began when the administration offered him the position a month after President Obama’s inauguration.
Eighteen months later, with no confirmation vote in sight, Sullivan says he realized “it didn’t seem likely the impasse was going to be resolved, and a confirmation didn’t seem in the offing in the foreseeable future.”

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The White House today (june 2013) nominated two people to serve six-year terms on the Federal Election Commission.

The nominees are Lee E. Goodman, an attorney at law firm LeClairRyan, and Ann Ravel, chairwoman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Goodman will be floated to replace Republican Commissioner Don McGahn, while Ravel would replace Democrat Cynthia Bauerly, who resigned earlier this year and now works in Minnesota.

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Obama could only nominate, the GOP senate failed to confirm or even deny for that matter.

I also fail to see what is illegal about a party leadership trying to discourage someone from running against a preferred candidate. If it were why then are not the republican leadership up for the same scrutiny over what just transpired in W. Virginia?

I also fail to see what is illegal about a party leadership trying to discourage someone from running against a preferred candidate. If it were why then are not the republican leadership up for the same scrutiny over what just transpired in W. Virginia?

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I believe it violates the law if they give money to a preferred candidate but not the other.

I believe it violates the law if they give money to a preferred candidate but not the other.

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Remember Sanders filed suit against the DNC when he was denied access to Dem voter registries. The DNC moved quickly to quash the lawsuit. PR I'm sure was a factor, but even as an (I) Bernie had a legitimate grievance. Bernie should have held out for more than a $475K vacation home. Hillary blew $1 bn running a lousy campaign, and has done nothing to help preserve the party's reputation.